Bonney Lake Nazarene Home Page
Last updated May 13, 2010
Our LINKS Missionaries

Doug and Jennifer Mann
Kosovo
Here is a little more about us…
Doug was born in Washington DC and now considers Boston, the home of much of
his family, his home away from the field. Jen was born in Dundee, Scotland. She
would consider home away from the field to be a small town called High Wycombe,
just outside of London where her parents live. Although the more that we are on
the field the more abstract the term home becomes!
We met in Germany at a Youth Conference in December of 2001 when Doug was
working in Romania and Jen was studying nursing at Nottingham University,
England. We were married in July of 2003 in Salisbury, England. In October of
2006 our son Jonathan Edward was born in Lima, Peru. In October of 2008 our
daughter Sarah Elizabeth was born in London, England. Yes, we are a truly
international family with 7 passports between the four of us
We are currently transitioning from Lima, Peru to Tirana, Albania. Our
previous assignment in Peru was to work within the Peruvian Field Office. Doug
assisted the field director, Segundo Rimarachin, who is the first Peruvian to be
in leadership over the field. He worked in many different areas from speaking
and teaching, to office administration and field finances. Jen was the Child
Sponsorship Coordinator, working with over 300 children and their sponsors. We
also hosted many people who travelled through Lima for Work and Witness teams,
Field visits and personal travel in what we affectionately termed “The Mann
Motel”.
Our current assignment takes us to Tirana, Albania. After a year of language
and cultural studies we will be working with the Albania-Kosovo team and
national leadership in development efforts. As with most assignments we will be
involved in many different areas of work from education through compassionate
and outreach efforts. We are very excited about the new opportunities and
challenges.
October 2009 Newsletter
Hello from KOSOVO!!
For having only been living in
Prishtina for little over a month we
are feeling surprisingly settled in! Our
“personal” Work and
Witness team (Jen’s parents) came to help us juggle the
unpacking, home improvement projects and the kids.
They were a huge help. We
feel part of the family of
believers here. Everyone is very helpful and
welcoming. We are
also pleasantly surprised to feel the same way about our
neighbors! The community in which we live is small and full of
families that
have dwelled here for years. Many of them
have welcomed us with cakes, gifts,
practical help and advise. We
are excited to see what becomes of some of the
new friendships.
As always, Jonny has his following of little friends who
come to
our gate and call for him to come and play! Jonathan will be
starting a local “Kopesht” (Preschool) this month and we are
praying that he
settles well into it and starts to communicate well
in Albanian. He is so
friendly and is a true help to our work here as he builds
relationships.
As per usual, life has been busier than simply moving house
again. The end of
September saw the 10 year anniversary of the church here in
Kosovo. It was
truly exciting to see the history of where the group of believers
have come
from and been through as well as hearing their dreams and visions.
We were
able to host friends from Scotland along with my parents (yup, we have
lots
of room, you are more than welcome to come and visit!), and the whole
weekend
was wonderful. May God continue to work in and through the believers
here in
exciting and miraculous ways!
Straight after the anniversary, we jumped into
cars and headed
down to Macedonia for the South Eastern Europe Field
Conference. It was a
wonderful time to meet together with old friends from
Doug’s time in Romania.
We were able to truly rest and rejuvenate as well as
be challenged and
encouraged by the topics covered by the guest speaker Geoff
Crosno.
We are excited about the months and year to come. We are
committed
to support the believers one a week in Suhareka, a village and hour or
so
across the mountains from Prishtina. Jen has started doing a kids program
there. Please pray for her and if you have any suggestions on material that
would
help her she would be very grateful! It is a small but growing group
and we are
especially praying that some of the believers spouses will make
commitments in
the coming months. We are excited to be supporting the
Prishtina Church. Doug
is out almost once a day meeting the believers at
their coffee breaks and has
started accountability, prayer and discipleship
relationships with some of the guys.
Along with the day to day ministry,
during the six months we will be hosting some
teams from our Nazarene
Universities who will be coming to both do work
projects and have a class
together with our Kosovo/Albania Extension Education
scholars. There will be
a marriage retreat for our young couples, Doug will be
attending a special
event specifically to equip people working in countries such as
ours, and of
course there is our home assignment from Jan-March!
People often ask us what
we do… what our roles really are. With
every new assignment the roles
definitely get more complex. Here in Kosovo we
are the only World Mission
employees, so as far as WM initiatives and roles, we
are it here. We work
with a great group of national leaders and believers on a day
to day basis
and we are excited to see how our work here at the grass roots level
of
ministry develops. If you, or anyone that you know, would like to come to
Kosovo as volunteers or as a W&W team then just let us know! If you want to
come and just visit and see what exciting things are going on then come on
over… we love to host!
As usual we will keep our website updated with
specifics that you
can be praying about with us. Thank you for your ongoing
support and
encouragement and prayers. We appreciate your involvement in the
ministry
here. Grace & Peace, Doug, Jen, Jonathan & Sarah
10 Feb 2010 10:23 pm
The highlights go something like
this…. Dunkin Donuts Coffee, home cooked meals cooked for me (Jen), some
excited churches ready to get behind us & Kosovo with prayers and support,
family, friends, bagels, new clothes that FIT (two pregnancies later and
Jen’s wardrobe didn’t quite work anymore), Snow…
A few lowlights… snow, SNOW, and more SNOW (canceling
several services & get togethers with friends), a broken down car on one of
the coldest nights of the year, a very unsettled Jonathan who asks at least
twice a week to go home to Kosovo, a car wreck (which Doug escaped from with
just whiplash)…
We are
surviving, enjoying, thankful for blessings and hopeful for endurance to get
through 2 more months of Home assignment.
Our continued prayer is that the enthusiasm, excitment
and hope found in the believers of Kosovo will touch folks here and those
called to support His people there will get involved!
For more information visit:
http://www.mann-ministry.info/
The History of "LINKS" in the
Nazarene Church
Box Work,
now known as LINKS (Loving, Interested Nazarenes, Knowing and
Sharing) began on
the Southern California District in 1916. The Box Work project grew until, in
1922, a Box Work Committee of three was appointed with Mrs. Paul F. (Ada) Bresee
as chair.
In 1976
the LINKS program was introduced, expanding Box Work to the "adoption" of a
missionary (active or retired) or missionary family. This involves praying for
them, writing letters, providing cash for personal needs, and remembering them
on birthdays, at Christmas, and on anniversaries. In 2004 approximately $307,000
was received for 550 missionaries through LINKS.
To
effectively pray for missions and the missionaries, personal involvement is
essential. The missionaries assigned to your district have given or are giving
their all to follow the Great Commission.
A LINKS
cash assignment is given for clothing and household article needs. However, the
primary emphasis of LINKS is the loving prayer support of Nazarenes worldwide.
CHURCH
RESPONSIBILITIES
1. Pray
regularly for your LINKS missionaries and their work in church services, prayer
meetings, missions services, personal devotions, etc.
2.
Correspond regularly with your LINKS missionaries, assuring them of your prayers
and support. 3. Inform missionaries when sending a package, so they will know
the date it was sent and what the package included.
4.
Appoint one contact person who will correspond with the missionaries and share
responses with the church. Do not expect a missionary to respond to every card
and letter. A missionary is asked to correspond quarterly and to acknowledge the
receipt of packages.
5. Send
all LINKS money (assignment amount, as well as any personal cash gifts) to
Global Treasury Services in Kansas City for Ten Percent Credit. Gifts sent
directly to the missionaries are not eligible for Ten Percent Credit.
UNOFFICIAL LINKS
Unofficial LINKS provides additional opportunities for connecting with
missionaries by providing some of their "wishes." Some examples are: rolled
bandages, sample medicines, linens, school supplies, sewing needs, used
clothing, greeting cards, and literature. The NMI Office compiles these requests
each year. Send only items listed on the current year's unofficial list.
The
updated lists are sent to all district LINKS coordinators in time for their
district NMI conventions. The lists are "current" from March to March. All
unofficial LINKS requests are listed on the NMI Web site <www.nazarenemissions.org>:
"Involvement," "LINKS," "Unofficial LINKS Requests."
DUTY
Send
$2.00 to Global Treasury Services for every LINKS and Unofficial LINKS package
sent. Checks should be made payable to "General Treasurer" and sent with your
local church's remittance form.
1/06
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